New id weapons look the same

Has anyone noticed / wondered why the weapons from the new id software games (Rage until now) have a similar design? Take the Super Shotgun for example. Similar designs in Wolf TNO / TOB, Doom16 and Eternal . Same goes with Rocker Launcher or Gauss Cannon (Rage 2 has a similar weapon in design).

I would think they try to make a expanded universe, but besides a few references there are no facts yet, except for the Doom universe.

1) There's only so many ways a double-barrel shotgun can look.
2) If you have a good model, why not use it again?

Not talking about about only the double-barrel. Yeah I get that.

They don't use the same model. But similar looking new models.

I hadn't noticed that, interesting.

Using the same engine and similar position on the screen seems to influence their percieved similar look a lot.

Same with QC, but that weapons skins are indeed to be like the olds to want it.

If Wolfestein New Bloood have a similar weapon to RAGE 2 or DOOM, i will say yikes, it's true!

The sawed-off double barrel from Rage 1 looks different than the others. The one in Doom Eternal looks different than the others.

The Doom '16 and Wolfenstein ones indeed look similar but are obviously different models. They both have a classic shotgun with wooden stock design. It helps in Doom to differentiate it from the standard shotgun which has a more sci fi look.

If you were to look at the regular shotgun from all the games they all look completely different.

Also, the reason the ones in Wolfenstein look similar to eachother is because... well they're literally the same shotgun. You even see BJ saw it in half to make it a sawed-off.

I don't think the other weapons look too similar. They might share a couple designs but well I mean about 90% of guns from every FPS end up looking the same. A couple of the weapons from Doom '16 looked like they would belong in Halo, Destiny, or Killzone or something similar.

Ok. Rocket launcher looks very similar between the two Dooms (acceptable) and then it looks pretty similar in Rage 2 aswell.

Gauss Canon and Baliista same story. Rage 2 has Charged Plasma Cannon which is pretty similar. Super-Gun in Wolf2 bears some ressemblance too but I think that's just the positioning of the model

I like when the weapons have a sightly consistent look between the games, it helps my headcanon connect the games because I appreciated how everything was connected in various ways (BJs family line for example) in the classic id games and no matter what anyone says it helps me enjoy the games better. Often I allow my brain to fill in missing tidbits to make the background seem more alive.

"Why is it these four guns, which are all the same type, from four different games of the same genre, all made by the same studio, look so similar???"

Like others have said above, a double barreled shotgun is going to look like a double barreled shotgun. Doom Eternal's doubles shotty has some differences though. 

One weapon that is suspiciously similar, if not in design then in function, is the HAR (Doom) and the assault rifle (Wolfenstien). Both being AR's with rocket launcher attachments struck me as curious, and for my head cannon, it places the two in the same world. I'd attribute this to pure coincidence though. 

As for the others, again, you're picking functionally identical weapons that tend to be shaped the way they are for a reason. They will naturally share design qualities. 

EDIT: Also, not really seeing the rocket launcher issue. Other than the 'vaguely bazooka shape', they look pretty distinct from each other... 

Final note; these are not all iD games currently. Doom, Wolfenstien and Rage are all being worked on by different design teams, with the only real overlap being on the tech side and SOME minor creative final-word, far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong...). 

As long as you want to keep realistic materials, mechanical and gameplay function you will inevitably get to similar results. Most of assault rifles in reality looks similar too. You can force it to be different but it looses the instant recognizability that you want for gameplay. Only way is different artstyle, but it won't fir realistic looking game.
If you want this principle to the extreme go to Artstation and search for sci-fi armor. You will get thousands of really good well made designs for armors and you won't be able to differentiate between them after first 3.

Rage 2 doesn't use iD tech by the way.

Most of those look different enough. This is like saying a cutlass and a scimitar look the same.

Who knows? Maybe one day, there will come a time when games can share resources. Wouldn't it be cool if you could use the same weapon in all your FPS games? Experience the same enemies? Industry-wide compatibility across the board. Think of the implications. That would be a cool deal.

it looks to me like some may have been based on one another to save time and money at bethesda but they are all still largely different